Jim Moray heads out on tour in January and February offering his first new music since 2019 as he moves towards a new album release possibly in the autumn.
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00:00Good afternoon, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor at Sussex Newspapers. Lovely this
00:06afternoon to speak to Jim Murray. Now exciting times, you've produced a kind of retrospective
00:11album, which excitingly was partially recorded in Abbey Road. You're now working towards the
00:17next album, which is going into interesting new territory, and in between time you have dates,
00:22January 22nd in Brighton, January 25th in Winchester. Now the retrospective album,
00:29re-recording your back catalogue, selected numbers, partially in Abbey Road. How exciting
00:35was that? What was it like to be there? It's very exciting. It's a place that I've grown up.
00:42It seems weird to idolise a place, but just the history of music, it represents the history of
00:49recording in this country. A lot of things were devised there, going back to Edward Elgar and
00:56the obvious ones of The Beatles and Pink Floyd. And you're saying this from the perspective of
01:01living in Liverpool, of course, aren't you? Yeah, I'm saying this from the perspective of
01:04living in Liverpool. But no, it's a really exciting place to visit. So it was as much a present to
01:11myself for 21 years of recording, to go to the recording studio in this country. And what did
01:19it give you to sit there, to be there? Well, it's quite an inspiring place to soak up the
01:25atmosphere. There is something about kind of stepping up to it, really, of trying to do your
01:32best work because it motivates you to do that. But also it's a place where everything works very
01:40well. They're not stuck in the past. It's a very well set up modern studio that's retained some of
01:45the old features and added new things all of the time. The engineers are great. All the staff
01:51are great. They just make it really easy. But, you know, they've had a lot of practice at making
01:56recording sessions. And music clearly doesn't stand still because already you're thinking about
02:01the next album, second half, 2025 at least. And now you're looking at masculinity, aren't you?
02:09Yeah, loosely. Loosely, it's still kind of forming in my brain, but the songs that I'm
02:16looking at have this sort of vague connection to being men's stories. I think my favourite singers
02:26of the past, of my favourite folk singers of the past, were always people that sounded like
02:32when they were singing, they embodied the character, you know? So I wanted to
02:39sing songs that A, is unplausible coming out of my mouth and B, that I can bring some life
02:46experience to because I think that's when folk songs work best. There is a school of thought
02:52that folk singing is other people's stories and you should remain completely impassive.
02:59You know, the quote is like a newsreader because, but I mean, I like the people where for the
03:04duration of that song, they're playing the part, right? So, yeah, I've been thinking about
03:13songs that speak to my life and my experiences and that I might be able to communicate in a
03:21meaningful and plausible way. That's, I suppose, at the root of it.
03:26And will you be bringing some of the material from that album into the concert?
03:30Yeah, for sure. I mean, so that album, I'm aiming to put out in autumn next year. So,
03:36yeah, I'll be trying out quite a big chunk of it, I should think.
03:39Fantastic. Well, Jim, really lovely to speak to you. You're playing
03:42Winchester on the 25th and Brighton on the 22nd of January.
03:47Yeah, I'm really looking forward to it.
03:49Thank you very much.